[3830] RTTY WPX K0TV M/S HP

webform at b41h.net webform at b41h.net
Sun Feb 13 16:30:18 PST 2011


                    CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest

Call: K0TV
Operator(s): K1BG, KB1TBU, WO1N, K0TV
Station: K0TV

Class: M/S HP
QTH: FN42hr
Operating Time (hrs): 45

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
   80:  292
   40:  308
   20:  945
   15:  177
   10:    0
------------
Total: 1722  Prefixes = 5026  Total Score = 3,618,720

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

I'm writing this just as the contest ended.

Whew, that was loads more fun than I've ever had in a RTTY contest.
This was the first time we've done M/S from here in a long time.
The team was small but compact. Murphy didn't hit us too bad. A week
before the contest, I was testing the new KK1L 2X6 switch on RTTY and
all of a sudden, the SWR went through the roof. I turned out that
one of the solder joints holding the left radio's feed into the switch
matrix had come unsoldered while I was running 1500 watts through the
switch. When I took the switch out of the box, there was lots of smoke
and the board was ruined. Luckily I had built up a second board which
I finished and used to replace the burned board. I'll have to build up
another one. I was planning on making a 2X12 matrix using two but that
was a long term plan.

Next Murphy. Plugged all the antennas into the matrix but there was
a very high SWR on the 15 meter stack which usually is about 1.1:1.
A TDR showed a break in the coax between the shack and the tower.
The day before the contest, I trudged out through 3 feet of snow
(I really must invest in a pair of snow shoes...) to splice in a new
run of coax. When I got back to the house, I discovered my crimping
tool had fallen out of my pocket. With darkness falling, it had to
wait for the next day. It was right at the base of the tower.

At the start of the contest, KB1TBU who was new to RTTY, showed up late
so I had to teach him how to operate RTTY during the second hour of the
contest. He did catch on so I left him to operate while I got some sleep.
He left around 0430 so with only about 2 hours of sleep and having been
woken by dogs at 0500 local the day before (1000Z), I started in on the
overnight run. By 0900 I was falling asleep at the radio with auto CQ on.
Sorry to those who answered my CQ and got only more CQs. I think it was
a few minutes. I decided to take some off time and wait for WO1N to show
up. Ken took a most unusual time for his schedule this time. He arrived
after sunrise and never spent any time operating with the sun below
the horizon. Ken is ususally my partner on the all night shift. We're
both denizens of the dark. Ken let me get a little sleep but left around
1 PM local. K1BG arrived to find me starting a run on 20 meters.
Bruce had not done much RTTY (we're all pretty new to RTTY contesting).
He was also pretty short on sleep so I sent him off to get a nap before
getting on the air. When he got up, he was feeling much better and he
eventually had lots of fun operating. We were all learning how to grab
and pop calls off the grab stack in N1MM. It was a bit rough around the
edges at first be we all got the hang of it. Bruce left around 2 AM
and I finished the overnight. Ken showed up at about 6:30 just as I was
getting on 20. Ken took over as I started to drop.

I came back to the radios at about noon and we both did some tag teaming
for a couple of hours until Ken left.

My high points were learning really how to use "LOGTHENGRAB". Best use
was having a ZL stacked while working a JA. Cool. Low points, falling
asleep while calling CQ and trudging out in the snow to get my crimping
tool.

MVP goes to K1BG for being a trooper and coming to operate when he
wasn't really feeling 100 percent. Glad the nap helped.

Thanks for everyone who called in and a big raspberry to those who
tried to steal the frequency (just kidding really).

73, Jerry - K0TV

PS, my mother's 90th birthday is same day as ARRL DX CW so we won't
be on for that one next week. See everyone for ARRL DX Phone.


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